I jumped out of bed (far too) early on Saturday morning, and pulled my DS shirt on, ready for a big day ahead at the Porsche Club’s latest outing at Queensland Raceway. On the way I dropped in to my usual little takeaway at Darra to pick up a banh mi thit (Viet pork salad roll) and cafe sua da (Viet iced coffee). The BEST way start to the morning.
The fog was still lying thick and cold over the countryside by the time I arrived at QR at about 8:30am. Made for some different lighting I thought. Officials deemed it sufficiently safe to send out the first couple of rounds of cars, making for smooth backgrounds.
By about 9:30, most of it had lifted, revealing a glorious cloudless day.
This brand new Porsche Cup car sounded freaking AMAZING, with an added raspy crispness in the engine note, especially on shifts. The hairs on my arm did stand on end.
This freshly restored fastback Mustang also made its way around the track a few times on its first shakedown run. Thing was mint in every way possible.
Lee next to her car, chatting with friends.
She wasn’t having the best day in terms of laptimes, but the 993 still looked fantastic out on track.
Actually now that I think about it, everyone was super friendly on the day. I spent some time hanging out with the Dellow Racing team, who were even kind enough to take me out in this 997 Cup car. If you’ve never been in one of these, find a way and do it. The traction, cornering and braking will blow your mind. After about 15 hotlaps, I actually felt a bit nauseous from the G-forces, despite a very smooth driver!
Their 996 Cup car.
I even had a chat with the owner of this incredible 599GTB, who was happy to discuss the merits of weight vs power vs torque.
Quite a bit of racing took place. This yellow and black turbo was blowing flames all day, but this proved to be incredibly hard to capture. This is the best of about 300 images.
The drivers got quite sideways too, especially for a rear-engined car, and spun a few times also. I would also like to thank Michael Harris from Promotive Engineering for letting me try out his Bigma and 7D combo. :D
Ferdinand Porsche would be proud.
Dellow’s 2 Cup cars on the main straight.
How good does this thing look?! Colours and decal are modelled after the Brumos Porsche RSR, which won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1975 and ’77. Got history?
There’s just something about old school Porsches.
Some pretty rare cars out, like this special edition 996 GT3. One of only 9 in the country.
Even the Lamborghini Club came out to play, bringing a couple of Murcielagos, a few Gallardos, and even a Countach.
The best car of the day, with added stone chips. Just look at those classic lines.
The end of a big day of racing. More to come!
